GOTHAM UNDERGROUND #9 (OF 9)Written by Frank Tieri
Art by J. Calafiore and Jack Purcell
This was actually a strong, character driven piece to an otherwise summer popcorn flick style mini-series. However, for such a long series, I expected more of a conclusion than we got here and it feels like I paid for nine issues of complete set up that may or may not be picked up any time soon, especially with a major Batman event going on and this taking place before Salvation Run, timelinewise.
However, the issue should be judged on its own and not based on the purpose or entirety of the series and this issue excelled where the previous eight did not - with strong character driven plots.
The best part of this issue had to be the Penquin / Riddler "talk". Riddler, fresh from a brutal beating issued at Penquin's command has put two and two together and figured out that his friend, Penquin, did it to save him, as Riddler would have been killed if higher ups had found him snooping like he was.
The two villains (well, Riddler is technically reformed and Penquin is "legit", to a point) have a nice sit down chat that explores the deeper friendship the two have and is definitely one of the better Batman rogues gallery portrayal in ages.
The rest of the issue merely wraps up the mini-gang war that was going on in Gotham while Batman was in Arkham and, just as Penquin is about to be killed by Intergang's thugs, Batman comes to his rescue. However, Batman isn't here just to save his life. He lets Penquin know that he owns him now and that he will report everything to Batman concerning Intergang and what's going on in Gotham, to which Penquin was actually quite happy to agree to.
This could be a great new dynamic for Penquin, who'd become more of a background fixture as the black market dealer / Iceberg Lounge owner of Gotham in recent years. I hope Paul Dini picks up on this in Detective and does some similar work with Penquin as he has with Riddler. However, I feel this might just end up being picked up in six months time when Tieri takes over for Dixon on Batman and the Outsiders, which would be a long layoff for the myriad of loose ends in this series.
The final segment of this issue has Commissioner Gordan and Batman talking and Gordan making some jokes about how Robin couldn't match up to Batman's "sneakiness". After Batman leaves, Gordan notices Robin fighting below and mentions how he must have missed him. As it fades out, we see a "kick me"-like "Robin Fan Club" taped on the back of Gordan's coat, a funny little send off to the series.
Disappointingly, the only mention of Spoiler, who originally "returned" in this series, was a piece of paper saying, "Sorry", to Penquin. I still don't know if that was the actual Spoiler or where the cloaking device, which we didn't see in Robin, came from or went.
Verdict - Check It. If the entire issue was as good as the Riddler / Penquin scene, this would easily be a Must Read and one of the best issues out this week, but it was only part of the issue and the rest brings it down to Check It status.
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